In recent years mobile telephones took over many “every day” tasks such as planners, reminders, telephone lists, directories of addresses. Another aspect in the functionality of mobile network devices is to provide entertainment features. Today, games such as space attack, snake, pairs, pinball, have been adapted to the limited resources of mobile telephones.
There are already several types of games and entertainment applications that use mobile communication devices as a basis. For example in Finland you can chat through television by sending SMS to certain numbers and your message is shown on the screen for everybody to see. Such features are also provided on interactive shows on “Music Television” programs.
Imaging phones together with multimedia messaging technology and e-mail capabilities have simplified the capture and sending of images. However, the traditional short messages can often carry all the necessary information so the additional transfer of an image to an addressee is often not regarded as being worth the cost.
There have been both useful and fun applications to use captured images. For example, the pictures taken by a user with an imaging phone can be stored onto a network server and shared from there among friends. Also, the pictures can be used in the terminal as a basis for games, e.g., in the MixPix application in the Nokia 7650 imaging phone.
The invention relates to a use of image comparison. With an increasing spread of mobile terminals the market for mobile terminal phones becomes more and more saturated. To be able to sell a new mobile phone it is required to provide more and better features in a mobile phone providing an increased usability beyond the provision of solely a voice connection.
Image based electronic games are e.g. described in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,346,043 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,353 and in the Japanese Patent Application number JA 08016807 A.
An image based electronic game is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,346,043 that is implemented as an image matching game for use in slot machines, where images and arrangements of images shown to user are prize-related.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,508,353 discloses an image matching video game based on memory games where users have to choose between two matching images during a certain time period. The arrangement can simply be described as a kind of electronically animated pairs game, with fewer moving pairs.
JP 08016807 describes an object picture comparison device where pictures can have a certain fighting strength based on predetermined qualifiers on picture data and this strength can be used to compare the strengths of two different pictures to determine a winner.
Now, there are spotting competitions based e.g. on calls. A radio station may broadcast, “Find our commercial car and call us. The first spotter will get a prize.”
A motivator for sending multimedia messages is needed both to boost the operator revenue from the technology and to reveal the potential of picture messaging to holders of imaging phones. Also, new ways of using the captured images are needed. The exchange of images is a new dimension in mobile communication and applications adapted to be attractive for creating fun and distraction out of pictures are still few.
It is further desirable to enhance the known spotting type of competitions organized by local radio stations, restaurants and the like that are based on calls.
It is further desirable to have a game that fully uses the resources provided by modern camera phones. Pictures have been used in different kind of memory games through certain times and with camera phones it is desirable to make this use larger and more varied.